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A US government informant acting as a member of the
Zetas, a drug
cartel in Mexico, supposedly helped thwart an Iranian plot to
assassinate the
Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States on American soil. Now
Obama’s top national security aides are seeking new international
sanctions against Iran. Pepe Escobar, correspondent for the Asia Times,
tells us who’s to gain from the situation.

How
this
convenient story was told in the Daily Mail:

'Somebody
will have to pay the price': Saudis issue menacing threat to
Ahmadinejad as U.S. senators declare economic war on Iran over terror
plot

John Boehner calls Obama to 'Hold Iran's
feet to the fire' and Joe Biden says 'nothing has been taken off the
table' as U.S. decides sanctions or actions

Plot to assassinate Saudi ambassador on U.S.
soil by bombing restaurant in Washington D.C. followed by blasts at
Saudi and Israeli embassies

Uncovered by U.S. informant posing as
associate of feared Zetas Mexican drug cartel who had become source
after being busted for drug trafficking

Saudi Arabia has
delivered an intimidating warning to Iran that ‘somebody will have to
pay the price’ for the country’s alleged plot to assassinate its U.S.
ambassador in Washington D.C.

A dramatic
international standoff between the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Iran is
intensifying this week and could end up pushing America to the brink of
military conflict.

President Obama
last
night spoke to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia about the alleged plot and
they agreed it was ‘a flagrant violation of international law,’ White
House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Held to account: It is unclear,
however,
if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was aware of the plot

It comes as lawmakers
across
America declared economic war on Iran as anger grew following
revelations of the alleged assassination attempt by Iranian government
agents.

'The burden of proof and the amount of
evidence in the case is overwhelming and clearly shows official Iranian
responsibility for it. This is unacceptable. Somebody in Iran will have
to pay the price, and that price will have to be on the terms
acceptable to the norms and practices in Iran and other countries'

Ex-chief of Saudi intelligence services
Prince Turki al-Faisal

The most senior
politicians in
the U.S. hold Iran accountable for a 'significant terrorist act' and
senators have declared it an 'act of war' which should be avenged with
serious economic sanctions.

‘The burden of proof and
the
amount of evidence in the case is overwhelming and clearly shows
official Iranian responsibility for it,’ ex-chief of Saudi intelligence
services Prince Turki al-Faisal said.

‘This is unacceptable.
Somebody in Iran will have to pay the price, and that price will have
to be on the terms acceptable to the norms and practices in Iran and
other countries.’

Calls for action this
week
have come, among many others, from the chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, who said a 'serious response' by the U.S. was
imperative.

Other senators called
for
President Barack Obama to revisit a request by 92 lawmakers for the
U.S. to crush Iran's central bank. This followed similar calls from
Washington’s most influential voices.

Standing strong:
Senator Carl Levin, left, called the plot a 'damn serious threat to the
United States', while Mark Kirk, right, said it was an 'act of war'

HOW
THE
U.S. COULD CRIPPLE IRAN'S FINANCES

In August, a
group of
92 senators wrote to President Obama calling for the government to
cripple Bank Markazi, Iran’s central bank.

Going down this
route
would consist of banning all transactions with the bank, which has been
accused of being ‘one of the key financiers of Iran’s nuclear
ambitions’.

Doing so together
with
European allies would significantly hinder cash flow in the country –
crushing the value of its currency, which would make it impossible for
the country to trade.

Iran already has
considerable trouble transferring money around the world - so much so
it is already talking to the Chinese about setting up a barter system - so any further damage to its currency
would be significant.

While it has
blacklisted other banks in Iran and has previously called on financial
institutions to avoid doing business with Iran, the government has so
far fallen short of trying to cripple the central bank.

‘If implemented,
new
sanctions against the Iranian central bank could blunt the country’s
push toward becoming a nuclear power,’ the letter, which was signed by
all but eight senators, stated.

House Speaker
John
Boehner called on President Obama to 'hold Iran's feet to the fire',
taking swift and decisive action against the Ahmadinejad administration
after the discovery of the plot.

Mr Boehner
described it
'a very serious breach of international behaviour'.

Vice President
Joe
Biden said that 'nothing has been taken off the table' as the U.S.
considers possible sanctions and military action. He insisted the
consequences for Iran will be 'serious'.

Manssor
Arbabsiar, a
56-year-old U.S. citizen who also holds an Iranian passport, appeared
in court in New York accused of trying to hire a Mexican drugs cartel
to carry out the killing.

He is accused of
plotting to kill Adel Al-Jubeir by bombing a restaurant, before setting
off blasts at the Saudi and Israeli embassies.

The devastating
plan
was foiled after Arbabsiar offered a government informant posing as a
Mexican drug cartel associate a $1.5million bounty to help carry out
the attack.

Senators took the
opportunity to offer their opinions about how best to respond to the
plot.

Senator Mark Kirk
declared it an 'act of war', while calling on the Obama administration
to reconsider targeting the Iranian central bank in response.

A closed-door
Senate
briefing last night by the FBI, CIA, State Department and Treasury has
revealed there may be a series of plots by Iranian agents.

After the
meeting,
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Dianne Feinstein told ABC News:
'There may be a chain of these things.

'There may be a chain of these things. It's
hard for me to believe that there is just one plot involving the United
States. I think we need to explore whether there are other plots going
on... in other countries'

Senate Intelligence Committee chairman
Dianne Feinstein

'It's hard for me
to
believe that there is just one plot involving the United States. I
think we need to explore whether there are other plots going on... in
other countries.'

She added there
'may
well be problems elsewhere' that had to be looked at’.

In August, 92
senators
signed a letter to President Obama calling for sanctions to be imposed
on the bank, which would cripple the country financially.

Speaking on WLS
radio,
Senator Kirk said the bank was the 'paymaster' for the Quds Force, a
special unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said to have been involved
in the terror plot.

Banning all
transactions by the Federal Reserve and the EU Central Bank to Iran's
Bank Markazi would cripple its currency, he said.

Detained: Arbabsiar
appearing
before Judge Michael Dolinger and United States Assistant US Attorney
Glen Kopp during his arraignment in New York

'You cut them off
from
the central reserve system and the Bank for International Settlements,
the backbone of international finance.

'You
cut them off from the central reserve system and the Bank for
International Settlements, the backbone of international finance. At
that point, the Iranian currency becomes almost unmanageable... heir
currency would become like North Korea's currency'

Senator Mark Kirk

'At that point,
the
Iranian currency becomes almost unmanageable... Their currency would
become like North Korea's currency.'

‘And with
evidence now
of a plot to blow up targets in Washington, D.C., by the government of
Iran, it’s pretty much time to go ahead and take this action.'

Senator Carl
Levin said
the alleged plan to kill the Saudi ambassador was 'a damn serious
threat to the United States'. He added that there should be a serious
response by the U.S.

'It's in the
United
States, an alleged effort to assassinate somebody on our territory who,
by the way, is an ambassador to the United States,’ he said.

Furious: Hilary Clinton said the
uncovered plot 'crosses a line that Iran needs to be held to account
for'

Retaliation: House
Speaker John Boehner, left, called on Obama to 'hold Iran's feet to the
fire', while Vice President Joe Biden said that 'nothing has been taken
off the table'

WHAT
ACTION
WILL THE U.S. TAKE AGAINST IRAN IN RETALIATION?

A diplomatic rebuke

The U.S. has
started to
build an international consensus of condemnation of Iran. 'I think what
we have to do is unite the entire world against the Iranian behaviour,'
Vice President Joe Biden told CBS News this morning. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton said that she and President Obama have been making
calls to foreign leaders as they seek to develop 'a chorus of states
condemning this behaviour'. 'We think the facts of this case, which
include the outreach by the Iranian authorities to a Mexican drug
cartel seeking a murder-for-hire assassin will be quite disturbing to
officials in countries that have even in the past give Iran a pass,'
she said. Last night the State Department sent a cable to all American
embassies and consulates around the world telling them to put the case
against Iran before foreign authorities.

Economic sanctions

The U.S. Treasury
Department has announced economic sanctions against five Iranians,
including four senior members of the Quds force, which has been
implicated in the alleged plot. The International Air Transport
Association has also suspended Iran Air, the Iranian national airline,
from the system for processing international ticket payments. The UN
has imposed four sets of sanctions on Iran since December 2006 and
Hillary Clinton said that the uncovering of the plot makes tougher
sanction enforcement more likely. 'We've surprised Iran in the world in
how effectively we've enforced these sanctions. I think we've done a
better job than people expected,' she said. 'But I want to do even
more, close every loophole, make every country go the extra mile to
enforce these sanctions and I think this helps us on that.'

Military action

Vice President
Joe
Biden said that 'nothing has been taken off the table' as he refused to
rule out military actions against Iran. Peter King, head of the House
Homeland Security Committee, told the Daily News that he 'would support
whatever action the President feels is appropriate… however severe.'
But the U.S. lacks international support for large-scale military
action against Iran. Senior Obama administration officials have told
ABC News that the U.S. response will not include the possibility of an
armed conflict with Iran. A senior U.S. defence official said that
there had been no change in military positions in response to the
attack.

'So whether or
not that
constitutes an act of war against the United States' is a valid
question.

Representative
Michael
McCaul, a Texas Republican who heads a Homeland Security subcommittee,
said the alleged plan would be an act of war if it was indeed sponsored
by the Iranian government.

Former National
Security Advisor KT McFarland added: 'This takes it to a whole new
level of Iranian aggressiveness… (The U.S.) will presumably ramp up
efforts on sanctions, but technically you can construe this as an act
of war.'

Rhetoric against
Iran
has built as the U.S. is poised to taken an even stronger stance
against Tehran Mr Biden said it was 'an outrageous act and the Iranians
are going to have to be held accountable.

'The first thing
we're
going to be doing is making sure the entire world and all the capitals
of the world understand what exactly the Iranians had in mind,' he told
Good Morning America.

'It's an outrage
that
violates one of the fundamental premises upon which nations deal with
one another, and that is the sanctity and safety of their diplomats.

Republican
chairman of
the House Homeland Security Committee Peter King said that the
'flagrant and notorious' plot was 'an act of war' and that military
action could not be ruled out.

'We should not
be...
automatically saying we're not going to have military action,' he told
CNN.

'Everything
should be
left on the table when you are talking about a potential attack [in]
the United States, an act of war.'

A spokesman for
British
Prime Minister David Cameron said that Britain is consulting with the
U.S. on action against Iran.

'We are in close
touch
with the U.S. authorities and we will support measures to hold Iran
accountable for its actions,' he said.

Last night
Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton said the plot 'crosses a line' in Iran's state
sponsorship of terrorism and will further isolate the Islamic republic.

Mrs Clinton said:
'This
really, in the minds of many diplomats and government officials,
crosses a line that Iran needs to be held to account for.'

'The idea that
they
would attempt to go to a Mexican drug cartel to solicit murder-for-hire
to kill the Saudi ambassador, nobody could make that up, right?' she
said.

Mrs Clinton said
the
scheme 'creates a potential for international reaction that will
further isolate Iran, that will raise questions about what they're up
to, not only in the United States and Mexico'.

Arbabsiar and
another
man, Gholam Shakuri, have been charged with the $1.5million terror plot.

Accused: The home of terror plot suspect Manssor Arbabsiar in Round
Rock, Texas

TIMELINE
TO MURDER: HOW THE PLOT ESCALATED

May 24: Arbabsiar first meets
someone posing as an associate of a drug trafficking cartel in Mexico,
who was actually a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informant
codenamed CS-1. Arbabsiar asked
about the informant's knowledge of explosives and explained he was
interested in attacking a Saudi embassy.

June 2: Arbabsiar returned to Mexico
and held more meetings with the informant in late June and early July.
He allegedly said his associates in Iran had discussed a number of
'violent missions' including the murder of the Saudi ambassador to
Washington, Adel Al-Jubeir.

July 14: Arbabsiar meets CS-1 again,
they discuss plot details - how four men and a payment of $1.5 million
are needed.

July 17: The pair meet again in
Mexico. CS-1 says one member of his gang has already carried out
surveillance on the ambassadorand
they allegedly discussed bombing a restaurant in the United States
where the ambassador frequently dined.

August 1 and 9: Arbabsiar makes two
overseas wire transfers 'totalling approximately $100,000'

September 28: Arbabsiar flies to
Mexico, is refused entry and is sent back to JFK

September 29: Arrested at JFK by
federal agents

October 4-5: Arbabsiar, who has been
in U.S. custody since his arrest, made phone calls which were monitored
by U.S. law enforcement agents to Shakuri, described as a member of the
Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
He is believed to be based in Iran.

Shakuri allegedly
confirmed to Arbabsiar the plot should move forward as quickly as
possible, stating: 'Just do it quickly, it's late'

Shakuri, whom
authorities said was a member of the Quds Force, a branch of the
Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is still at large.

A third man named
Abdul-Reza Shahlai is accused of coordinating the alleged plot.

Shahlai, an
Iranian
official who is Arbabsiar's cousin, has previously been accused of
plotting an attack in Iraq which killed five U.S. soldiers.

Arbabsiar's wife,
Martha Guerrero, last night said that he was wrongly accused.

'I may not be
living
with him being separated, but I cannot for the life of me think that he
would be capable of doing that,' she told KVUE. 'He was at the wrong
place at the wrong time. I'm sure of that.'

Iranian officials
have
laughed off the accusation it was a plot backed by the government in
Tehran.

Shocking details
of the
plot have emerged as authorities reveal the scale of the operation to
foil the attack.

According to
prosecutors, when asked by undercover agents about the potential loss
of innocent life in the bombings, Arbabsiar replied, 'They want that
guy [al-Jubeir] done.

'If the hundred
go with
him, f**k 'em.'

Attorney General
Eric
Holder said earlier this week: 'The criminal complaint unsealed today
exposes a deadly plot directed by factions of the Iranian government to
assassinate a foreign Ambassador on U.S. soil with explosives.

Arbabsiar was
arrested
on September 29 in New York at JFK airport, according to Holder.

He was working
for the
Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard and had confessed to a plot.

Officials said he
had
flown from Iran to Mexico City, via Frankfurt, but had been refused
entry to Mexico and had been put on a plane to New York.

Mexico worked
closely
with U.S. authorities to help foil the alleged plot - issuing an
immigration alert on Arbabsiar after U.S. authorities told Mexican
counterparts that he was the subject of an arrest warrant.

Target: The
plot would have also attacked the Israel embassy, pictured here, in
Washington D.C.

Julian Ventura,
undersecretary for North America, said the alert prompted Mexican
immigration officials to turn Arbabsiar away when he tried to enter
Mexico on September 28.

'It's in the United
States, an alleged effort to assassinate somebody on our territory who,
by the way, is an ambassador to the United States'

Senator Carl Levin

Arbabsiar was
arrested
the next day when he arrived at New York's Kennedy International
Airport.

After his arrest,
Arbabsiar made phone calls to Shakuri in Iran which were monitored.

During the calls,
Shakuri allegedly confirmed that Arbabsiar should move forward with the
plot to murder the Ambassador and that he should accomplish the task as
quickly as possible, stating on October 5, 'Just do it quickly, it’s
late.'

The terror plot
involved bombing the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C., seen here, after
assassinating the ambassador

Bombings of the
Saudi
and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires and Argentina were also discussed
as part of the plan, according to officials.

'I think the U.S.
government is busy fabricating a new scenario and history has shown
both the U.S. government and the CIA have a lot of experience in
fabricating these scenarios and this is just the latest one'

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's spokesman
Ali Akbar Javanfekr

President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has laughed off the accusations that Iran was behind the
plot.

His spokesman Ali
Akbar
Javanfekr told CNN: 'I think the U.S. government is busy fabricating a
new scenario and history has shown both the U.S. government and the CIA
have a lot of experience in fabricating these scenarios and this is
just the latest one.

‘I think their
goal is
to reach the American public. They want to take the public’s mind off
the serious domestic problems they’re facing these days and scare them
with fabricated problems outside the country.'